Deployed airmen to wear new Army camo pattern

Jun. 3, 2014 - 06:00AM
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Former Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force James Roy, wearing the MultiCam uniform, visits with airmen from the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing in 2011. The Air Force plans to adopt the Army's new pattern for deployed troops to replace the MultiCam. (Tech. Sgt. Brian E. Christiansen/Air Force)

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While the Army has yet to make an official announcement, the Air Force will make the change to coincide with the Armyís plan, Air Force spokesman Maj. Matt Hasson told Air Force Times on Tuesday.

The change would apply to airmen wearing the MultiCam, officially called the Operation Enduring Freedom Camouflage Pattern, or OCP, in Afghanistan and in Africa, Hasson said.

There is no plan to change the airman battle uniform, or ABU, pattern, Hasson said.

But donít expect a shipment of new uniforms anytime soon: Uniform changes continue to face challenges on Capitol Hill.

Congress, in the 2014 Defense Authorization Act, directed the Defense Department to rein in uniform spending and adopt a camouflage utility uniform or family of uniforms across all services, forcing the Army to zero in on existing camouflage patterns for cost-saving measures.

The new pattern, known internally as Scorpion W2, is rumored to resemble the MultiCam, but with fewer beige and brown patches and none of the vertical twig and branch elements later added for MultiCam, sources told Army Times.

The Air Force replaced the ABU with the MultiCam uniform for airmen embedded with Army units in Afghanistan in 2011.